IE and Substrates and Time

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

In a message dated 3/16/99 7:09:19 PM, mcv at wxs.nl wrote:

<<A lot indeed depends on exposure, but the interesting cases from
a historical linguistic point of view are by definition the cases
where a lot of mutual exposure is involved.  >>

And that of course brings up the whole issue of "the second language."  In
some cases, we just mean exposure to a foreign language.  But in others, we
are talking about bi-lingualism - presumably a critical stage in the PIE-
related situation where a non-IE speaker might be adopting IE.  Are there
tendencies in such situation that might affect the phonological structure of
the adopted language?

BTW, there is on the web, a neat site called Enthnologue put up by the SIT
that is a catalogue of world languages (I think it is UN info.)  There one
learns for example such things as:

"ALLEMANNISCH (ALEMANNISCH, ALLEMANNIC, ALEMANNIC, SCHWYZERDÜTSCH,
ALSATIAN) [GSW] (300,000 in Austria; 1991 Annemarie Schmid; 4,225,000 in
Switzerland; 1986). Southwestern. Also in Alsace, France. Indo-European,
Germanic, West, Continental, High. Approximately 40% inherent
intelligibility with Standard German. Speakers are bilingual in Standard
German. Called 'Schwyzerdütsch' in Switzerland, 'Alsatian' in
southeastern France. Similar to Swabian. Differs from most other German
varieties in not having undergone the second lautverschiebung, or vowel
shift. NT 1984. Bible portions 1936-1986."

The URL is: http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/countries/Germ.html

And finally it is odd to hear two speakers of different languages using two
languages to speak back and forth.  If they have any sense of accomodation
between them, for example, they do tend to make concessions - e.g., if the
topic is a dog, it is odd to use the different words to refer to the dog.
This is why a third neutral language is as much a matter of etiquette as it is
a matter of understanding.  Lingua Franca's however also help to get past all
that.

Regards,
Steve Long